Architects collaborate on geometric extension to radically re-shape a London home

London’s expansive housing inventory spans many eras, and virtually all of it’s appropriate for refurbishment, not alternative. This geometric extension reveals that the times of by-the-numbers home extensions are over. The growing reputation of award schemes like Don’t Transfer, Enhance showcase the large range of design approaches that may be made to dovetail with a interval house, whether or not it’s Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian or Publish-Warfare.

Step inside this geometric extension by All & Nxthing Interiors and Merrett Houmøller Architects

This new challenge in North London is a working example. A collaboration between All & Nxthing Interiors and Merrett Houmøller Architects, this entire overhaul of a four-storey Victorian townhouse has been impressed by the sunshine and structure of Southern Spain and Morocco.

The first intervention is the rear extension, a hovering double-height house with canted partitions that appear as if vaults. Trapezoidal in kind and created by demolishing a lot of the unique first ground, the brand new extension homes a kitchen that integrates intently with the backyard. All partitions and ceilings are completed in a breathable unfired clay that creates a textural floor that modifications with the sunshine all through the day.

Unique brick partitions have been retained, restored and uncovered the place doable, mirrored by the flooring and offering a heat distinction to the clay partitions. Inside designers All & Nxthing had been answerable for the in depth new joinery, which incorporates hand-sawn maple and beech wooden kitchen cabinetry, paired with oxidised copper worktops.

The brand new brick ground can be carried by into the north-facing courtyard backyard, the place a shallow rainwater-fed pool is positioned adjoining to the eating and seating areas within the extension. The planting is meant to be drought resistant, with the terracotta planters and mature olive bushes making one other nod to the Mediterranean influences.

All the floor ground now reads as a sequence of interlocking areas, damaged up by new wall openings and the sloping piers that emphasise the shape and peak of the rear extension. Inbuilt benches line a beneficiant kitchen nook, with angled kinds a recurring visible theme all through the challenge, even all the way down to the entrance backyard railings.

‘The shoppers of this challenge got here to us earlier than that they had even discovered a home to purchase however they knew that they wished a Victorian or Edwardian home that they might make main alterations to,’ explains architect Rob Houmøller, ‘the  inspiration got here partially from conventional Moroccan and Andalusian properties the place a central courtyard is tall and stuffed with gentle, with smaller, cozier rooms off to the facet.’

All & Nxthing’s heat interiors improve this sense of secluded niches inside a bigger house.’The final word intention was to create an area of sanctuary from the busy metropolis outdoors,’ says the studio’s Stephen Nash. Limewash painted partitions are additionally used within the refurbishment, whereas brass fixtures and fittings pair with the copper counter tops.

The 5 completely different zones of the bottom ground embody a proper front room that may be closed off from the remainder of the house. There’s additionally a backyard room housing a health club, whereas two bedrooms on the basement degree. The principal bed room takes up the entire of the primary ground, with a touchdown off the brand new oak stairs that overlooks the kitchen space. ‘We pushed the Mediterranean vibe within the principal rest room,’ Nash says, ‘the partitions have peachy, nude tones, paired with limestone flooring and unlacquered brassware which is able to patina over time.’ The attic degree homes a visitor suite and a house workplace, with views throughout native wetlands.

Peter Merrett and Robert Houmøller arrange their North London apply in 2014. Longlisted for a number of Don’t Transfer, Enhance awards, the apply works on quite a lot of scales, all the best way as much as shaping masterplans. Each Merrett and Houmøller mix apply with instructing. Stephen Nash based All & Nxthing in 2015, engaged on each non-public and business tasks from their studio in Haggerston.

MerrettHoumoller.com